Leadership
By Ms R. Ravikumar, FA&CAO/KRCL
 
On Friday's WSJ, Jack Welch had an op-ed piece on what he looked for in a leader when he was at GE. He then 
went on to put down all the democratic presidential candidates. I was however impressed with his succinct 
summary (excerpted below) of the four traits of business leaders -- energy, energize, edge, and execute -- and 
his three other requirements -- passion, integrity, and intelligence. 
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Every time I speak to a group, I get asked about leadership. Mainly, people want to know how I feel about that 
age-old question: Are leaders born or made? And I always answer the same way: Who knows? What I do know is 
what leaders look and act like.
Basically, my process assesses four essential traits of leadership (each one starting with an E, a nice 
coincidence).
One, successful leaders have tons of positive energy. They can go go go; they love action and relish change.
 Two, they have the ability to energize others -- they love people and can inspire them to move mountains when 
they have to. Three, they have edge, the courage to make tough yes-or-no decisions -- no maybes. And finally, 
they can execute. They get the job done.
If a candidate for a leadership role has the four E's, then you look for a final trait -- passion. By that I mean a 
heartfelt, deep and authentic excitement about life and work. People with passion care -- really care in their 
bones -- about neighbors, employees, colleagues and friends winning. They love to learn and grow themselves, 
and they get a kick when the people around them do the same.
Passion, luckily, can't be faked for very long, so this is usually a pretty easy call. Either people have a genuine 
zest for living and giving, or they're just showing up.
Now, an important point. You absolutely cannot even start to think about the Four E's until you get a solid yes on 
two questions. First: Does the leadership candidate have integrity? That means, does he or she tell the truth,
 take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes and fix them? Does he demonstrate fairness, loyalty, 
goodness, compassion? Does she listen to others? Does he truly value human dignity and voice? These may seem
 like fuzzy, subjective questions, but you have to get a strong "AMEN" in your gut to all of them to even consider
 a person as a leader.
Second: Before applying the Four E's, you have to ask, is the candidate intelligent? That doesn't mean a leader
 must have read Kant and Shakespeare (if it did, I would have been out of a job). It does mean the candidate 
has to have the breadth of knowledge, from history to science, which allows him to lead other smart people in a 
world that is getting more complex by the minute. Further, a leader's intelligence has to have a strong emotional
 component. He has to have high levels of self-awareness, maturity and self-control. She must be able to 
withstand the heat, handle setbacks and, when those lucky moments arise, enjoy success with equal parts of joy
 and humility. No doubt emotional intelligence is more rare than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually 
more important in the making of a leader. You just can't ignore it.
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